TIA Correspondent
MURSHIDABAD (West Bengal): Two rival parties in West Bengal on Saturday showed equal concern for the education of minorities here. Both the senior congress leader and the union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the state chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee have all praise for new Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) centre which has been set up here. Both the leaders promised all support to make the centre a full fledge university.
Laying the foundation stone of AMU Mukherjee said that it was the Central Government’s biggest affirmative initiative to impart quality education to educationally most backward minority, particularly the Muslims. “ It is first ever biggest extension of any Central University to spread education to the people who needed it most” he said.
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Union Finance Minister said that the Murshidabad Centre is a respectful tribute to AMU’s founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and Nawab Shamsul Jahan Begum, ruler of Murshidabad who relentlessly pursued the cause of female education, especially modern education. He hoped that the Centre will soon become a hub of modern education.
Hailing CM Bhattacharjee for extending all cooperation for the new AMU centre Mukhrjee said: “When we were planning a new AMU campus, the chief minister conveyed to us his interest in the project,”. He praised the state government for its “positive response” to efforts in “providing quality education to a vast section of the population in the backward areas of Bengal”.
The chief minister said that when he came to know that the AMU was interested in setting up a campus outside Aligarh, he wrote a letter to the Prime Minister requesting that Bengal be considered as the venue.“Then I called up our respected great leader Pranab Mukherjee. Now the dream has come true,” CM said amid big applause.
“This is a historic day for Murshidabad. We feel proud that AMU, known for modernising and secularising education in the country, now has a branch in our state,” Budhdeb said
Chief Minister said that the creation of this Center would add a new chapter in the history of higher education in West Bengal. The state has eighteen universities and Murshidabad will soon become the nineteenth of the state.
Speaking on the occasion union minister of Parliamentary Affairs & Water Resources Pawan Kumar Bansal, said that the concept of inclusive growth relentlessly pursued by the UPA Government cannot be achieved till education is imparted to every citizen of the country. The setting-up of AMU’s Murshidabad Centre is aimed at it.
Union Minister for State for HRD, D. Purandeswari, said that it was the first step in the direction to establish a new centre of AMU and the establishment of the centre will cater to educational needs of the marginalized and deprived section of the country. She hoped the Murshidabad Centre would transform into a full-fledged University in the coming years and will live up to the hopes and expectations of the people of West Bengal by providing quality education and research of international standard. Welcoming the guests, AMU Vice Chancellor, Professor P.K. Abdul Azis said that it is the glorious moment in the history of AMU to go beyond the confines of Aligarh reaching out to the people living in different parts of the country through its new centres. “Creation of the centre is the most appropriate homage to Sir Syed Ahmad Khan who wanted to spread education all over the country simultaneously” he said . he said that the new centre will start BA, LLB and MBA classes with an intake of sixty students each in the first week of January 2011 and it will start many new courses in coming years.
Minister for Higher Education West Bengal Sudarshan Roy Chaudhary and Moinul Hasan, MP and Member of AMU Court also spoke on this occasion.